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World record for number of people skiing in jeans set in Wyoming

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now we go to Wyoming, where a new world record has been set for skiing in jeans. Hanna Merzbach has this report.

HANNA MERZBACH, BYLINE: It's about 20 degrees and super sunny at the base of Jackson Hole Resort's two gondolas, and it's a sea of denim. Ski instructor Reyn Hoffman is practicing her disco moves near a live band.

REYN HOFFMAN: So we have a full Canadian tux with a disco helmet and a lot of glitter on.

MERZBACH: A Canadian tux is all denim. Some are wearing denim shorts or even the occasional jean Speedo. Others tuck in snow pants under their denim. Dylan Ruder (ph) dons a brown cowboy hat, thrift-store jeans and rainbow Pit Viper glasses.

DYLAN RUDER: I'm a coastal cowboy just looking to shred some pow (ph).

MERZBACH: He and some friends from Newport Beach, Calif., saw the resort advertising on social media that it was attempting to break the world skiing-in-jeans record.

RUDER: We all immediately bought tickets and booked a little lodging and came out.

MERZBACH: The resort says skiing in jeans is a way to kick off the winter season and say a record is something people can latch onto. Colorado's Arapahoe Basin claimed the title in 2020, when 80 people wore denim on the slopes. This year, a New Zealand report topped them with just over a hundred.

BLANE GILLILAD: Thirteen-sixty-five...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Thanks, guys.

GILLILAD: ...Thirteen-sixty-six, 1,367. I'm not counting you till you come back in jeans.

MERZBACH: Blane Gillilad (ph) is recording the numbers as skiers file in under an inflatable black archway.

GILLILAD: We broke the record like 3 minutes in - or, like, by 8:30, before we even opened.

MERZBACH: The resort was offering lift tickets for $25 and sold out. Day tickets typically go for about 200 bucks here. Kellie Wirth, who's from Jackson, says that can make skiing unattainable.

KELLY WIRTH: It's kind of becoming an elitist sport, which is sad. So it's fun to get back to the jeans and remember the good-old days.

MERZBACH: In a group of women wearing bright pink boas, Wirth says people wear jeans when they can't afford snow pants. The latest high-tech brands can go for hundreds of dollars. Nowadays, many see skiing in jeans as a joke - something you do on April Fool's or Closing Day. But according to Ruder, the coastal cowboy...

RUDER: Skiing in jeans is freedom. That's what it is. Skiing in jeans is freedom.

MERZBACH: The final tally of skiers in jeans - 3,114.

For NPR News, I'm Hanna Merzbach in Jackson, Wyo.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Hanna Merzbach